The Advisor’s Guide to Blogging
Welcome to a blog about blogs!
With Halloween just around the corner, this is the perfect opportunity to face your marketing fears and identify a “new” medium and make it your own. For many advisors, content marketing may be at the top of the list. Let’s start with a quick look at just a few reasons why blogging is well worth your time:
Content is king for SEO: bots continue to get smarter and the volume of quality, original content on your website will continue to build importance over time. Adding a blog is the perfect way to naturally incorporate keywords and questions your clients and prospects are searching for to bring them to your site
Grow your social media following: supplementing your social media feeds with your own original content delivers great value; the kind of value that attracts and retains followers! Blogging helps to expand your reach and influence to prospective clients, showcases your expertise, enables you to stay on top of mind and increase brand awareness positioning you and your brand as the “go to expert.”
Build relationships for increased conversions: as a financial advisor, how often do you get in front of a prospect that is a perfect fit for your firm, but perhaps the timing is not right? Whether their assets are tied up for a few more years or they just need to build trust in you and your firm before making the leap, ongoing quality content is the perfect opportunity to build your reputation as a trusted thought leader for financial advice.
Now that we have established why blogging is a valuable addition to your marketing mix, here are five essential tips to get your new blog up and running!
- Create a schedule…and stick to it: Consistency is key to build maximum impact, determine a realistic frequency for producing new content and schedule it into your calendar to make it happen. A minimum of once a month is recommended. If you have multiple advisors in your office, consider a rotating schedule to give everyone a platform to share their voice and spread the responsibility of your content calendar.
- Create compelling content: Whether or not you are a great writer, you have a valuable and unique opinion, and that is what a blog is designed to showcase. Think through common questions and concerns you hear in your prospecting and appointment process as potential topics to showcase. If one person has asked, there are likely many more turning to Google for the same questions! Localizing your story creates great SEO benefits as well, so get specific when you are able. For example, if there is a business in your area going through pension buyouts, your blog can be about what are the first three things employees should do or consider?
- Tap into your existing resources: From breaking news, industry email newsletters and membership organizations providing you with turnkey content, there are a number of free or cost-effective pools of content available to advisors today. To maximize these materials and for a quick and easy blog, take a few minutes to add your personal thoughts or takeaways and share backlinks to the original content. Or, if you have strategic partners such as attorneys or CPAs, consider cross-posting or guest blogging on each other’s sites to lend SEO benefits to all involved while spreading the content responsibility.
- Use multimedia: If writing is not your thing, perhaps vlogging (video blogging) is a better option for you! Think through your talking points or build a script to deliver a 2-3 minute update to your followers. Use the script or transcript as a blog post a well for those who prefer to read (including search engines!) for a two-for-one content deliverable. Also, aim to incorporate a minimum of one photo or graphic with each post. This encourages click through, social sharing, SEO benefits and more.
- Promote traffic: Once your blog is published, leverage this content to the max by sharing to your social media networks. Include teasers or extract a quote that will peak interest along with a link to your post. If an article has a longer shelf life or is one you are particularly proud of, set it as a featured media item on your LinkedIn profile for potential connections to read as part of their introduction to you. For examples of how these social media promotions may look, follow AdvisorPR on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to see how we feature our new content each week! Additionally, you can use your blog content to supplement or serve as your email newsletter and pull and print past posts for personal follow-ups in your appointment process.
While creating and maintaining a blog will require some time and effort, with these five tips, you can put your financial firm on the SEO map, build relationships, expand your network of followers and more. For more resources services for building your credibility and exposure, contact AdvisorPR at (866) 888.5333 today